amatl (CST36)
This painting of the simplex glyph for the term amatl shows a stack of white paper pages with pinkish red on the edges. The stack has a three-dimensionality. The companion text specifically mentions this is “just local paper” (my translation), and not imported from Castile/Spain. That means it is made from fig bark in this case.
Stephanie Wood
For more on the Codex Sierra, see Kevin Terraciano’s study (2021). See some other examples of paper, below. It is not always clear which is fig bark paper and which is imported. One can see that sometimes paper is a strip that is rolled up, sometimes is looks something like fabric, and sometimes it is in square or rectangular sheets.
Stephanie Wood
1550–1564
Jeff Haskett-Wood
papel, amate, libros, alfabetismo
ama(tl), fig bark paper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/amatl
papel de amate
Stephanie Wood
Códice Sierra-Texupan, plate 36, page dated 1561. Origin: Santa Catalina Texupan, Mixteca Alta, State of Oaxaca. Kevin Terraciano has published an outstanding study of this manuscript (Codex Sierra, 2021), and in his book he refers to alphabetic and “pictorial” writing, not hieroglyphic writing. We are still counting some of the imagery from this source as hieroglyphic writing, but we are also including examples of “iconography” where the images verge on European style illustrations or scenes showing activities. We have this iconography category so that such images can be fruitfully compared with hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphic writing was evolving as a result of the influence of European illustrations, and even alphabetic writing impacted it.
https://bidilaf.buap.mx/objeto.xql?id=48281&busqueda=Texupan&action=search
The Biblioteca Digital Lafragua of the Biblioteca Histórica José María Lafragua in Puebla, Mexico, publishes this Códice Sierra-Texupan, 1550–1564 (62pp., 30.7 x 21.8 cm.), referring to it as being in the “Public Domain.” This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the Biblioteca Digital Lafragua and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.
